Ascension
Christians believe that after Jesus rose from the dead, he did not die a second time. Instead, 40 days after his resurrectionThe Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after the crucifixion. The rising from the dead of believers on the Last Day in a new, or risen, life., Jesus left the Earth by being taken up, body and soul, to HeavenA physical place, or a state of mind, associated with God and the afterlife. to re-join God the Father. This event is called the ascensionFor Christians, when Jesus went up to Heaven 40 days after he rose from the dead., and it was witnessed by Jesus’ eleven remaining apostleOne who was sent out by Jesus to preach the gospel or 'good news'..
In the Bible, the book called the Acts of the Apostles describes this event and how angels, described as ‘men dressed in white’, helped the apostles to understand what was happening:
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
The ascension is important to Christians because:
- It shows that Jesus really had overcome death – he wasn’t just resurrected to die again, but to live forever.
- For many Christians, the fact that Jesus’ followers witnessed him ascending into the clouds leaves no doubt that Jesus is alive and with God the Father in Heaven, and is no longer limited to living on Earth.
- The ascension demonstrates God’s omnipotentAll-powerful..
Question
After dying on the cross, Jesus was reincarnated. True or false?
False. He was resurrected. Reincarnation is when something is reborn and starts life again, often in a different form. Jesus is believed to have come back to life, in the same form and at the same point in his life (aged 33) as when he died.
